How do we bridge the quality gap

In fairness we did well in the January window last season with loans. Aderamola and Khela both played a good part in our promotion run in.
This January was a disaster though.

 

Could always try producing your own

 

Fair point. Other than Bobby Pointon I can't recall the last youngster thats come through the ranks and made a real impact.

 

A lot harder these days to bring through your own when the system is weighed heavily in favour of large premiership academies to hoover up the young talent.

 

This the long and short of it for me, too.

Higher quality players does not always equate to a higher position in the table - but it USUALLY does, and its very, very difficult to subvert quality each and every season.

Pretty much everything has to go right.

Too many hissy fits among the players? (Goodbye Wheatley and good luck, son)
Too many injuries at critical times to STAR players?
Too many signing who just don't fit?

All regular occurrences, frankly, but the easiest to manage is character. No sulkers, no big time Charlie's, no crybabies. Or maximum ONE mercurial player per squad, probably.

To finish top 6 again next season, assuming we can't find the means to hand select every top quality player we fancy again, a whole lot has to go right - again. Add to the list we can't afford to become too predictable either, or lose any semblance of home form, and its a big ask.

That isn't a whinge... it can act as a monument to how well this season has gone. We just have to accept it's pretty unlikely to repeat itself, even though it's possible.

 

The trick is to look at those released around 14 or 15 and develop them on or look at lower tier academies and poach.

 

So unlike you, your usually so positive.

 

Your right it was Rahic who did the damage he was a very clever con man as Rupp believed most of what Rahic told him without any input to see if what he was hearing was correct, I know I keep harping on about it but if it hadn't been for John Dewhirst & Roger Owen going to Munich to speak to Rupp I hate to think of where the club might have been, lets hope he has embraced "football" unfortunately even though he is a rich man, compared to many other owners of Championship clubs (fingers crossed) I can't see him being able to finance a midtable Championship football club knowing the sort of stupid money that is thrown about by richer owners than Rupp, I hope I'm wrong we have to get there first, I'd take the chance of us getting promotion and see how it unfolds, there were many on here saying how we could not cope in League One and were proved totally wrong.

 

While it does take money, it mainly takes time.

If you have loads of money and try and buy a team, they still take time to gel like Luton have.

If you don't have a big budget it still takes time as homegrown players need to come through and you need to build through a couple of windows and slowly accumulate a team, like Lincoln.

We've overachieved against our plan this season I reckon. I reckon we were aiming for an upper mid table / top half finish, potential push to the play offs like a Plymouth so we use the summer to really push on. What we've had to do is basically change the entire team and squad in two transfer windows, we were always going to lack depth in quality. And for those saying we could have recruited better in January, its tricky, players need convincing too. Look at Wimbledon, started well and now nearly relegated after dropping like a rock. Players would have thought that could have happened with us and been reluctant to come.

 

Easier said than done though that mate, the amount of money going into development and research/scouting of kids usually sees the best kept on via the Japanese trawler method of throwing a net over virtually every possible kid out there. You get the odd one that bucks the trend but generally nearly all the talent gets swallowed up.

 

True but 85% don't make it past 16-17 gives a wide enough choice, or look at leagues where young players are playing regularly

 

I don't think the last sentence is correct. We were half way through the season, playing well and knocking on the autos....well at least at the start of the window we were. I would have thought we were an attractive proposition in that respect. Maybe less attractive in wages we could offer

 

Just need to be a bit more savy in the transfer market because we all know Rupp aint gonna piss millons up the wall and i cannot blame him ..............could be a fair few big hitters that may have to start to tighten there belts which may again help us out.

 

I remain against development squads of players sort of 15-19.

I don't believe it can work without targeted and intentional signings as opposed to cast offs.

 

We didn't do badly out of Declan Rice

 

I think the big issue is, if you're not first in line even for those players who probably aren't good enough, you'll miss out on the few who defy the trends.

Last time out we were signing cast offs from Barnsley.

Dear me, having those players on the books actually cost money, too!

 

We will finish higher than Plymouth Huddersfield and probably Luton and hopefully finish in a play off place so you could argue we have at least partially bridged the quality gap this year. By organisation teamwork and togetherness
N

 

If we make the play offs we will probably be the outside bet-I say probably, as for all our limitations, I'd still put us ahead of Stevenage if they were also to make it.
Regardless, in the play offs, we are in the realms of cup football where anything can happen and underdogs can come out on top.
A separate debate surrounds whether going up would be good for us in the long run, given we would clearly be under equipped for the Championship. I'm personally in the camp of giving this our absolute best shot and what will be will be for next season. Regardless, its a fantastic achievement that we enter the final game of the season with the possible prize of a 2nd successive promotion still a possibility.